Happy Saturday, peeps!
Hope everyone's having a nice holiday weekend. It's time for me to talk about the twenty-eighth issue of Marvel Two-In-One. The cover depicted the Thing and Namor the Sub-Mariner squaring off, apparently to save the life of Ben Grimm's girlfriend, Alicia Masters. The story was called "In the Power of the Piranha!" The issue had a publication date of June 1977.
The tale began with the cyborg Deathlok being examined by Reed Richards, as his Fantastic Four teammates Grimm, Sue Richards/the Invisible Girl, Johnny Storm/the Human Torch, and SHIELD (Supreme Headquarters Intelligence and Law Enforcement Division) head Nick Fury looked on. Reed deduced that Deathlok couldn't be cured. The man from a distant future had gone catatonic after being influenced by servo-pods installed by the Fixer (who was apprehended by SHIELD last issue).
If the device couldn't be removed, the possibility remained that Deathlok's brain might eventually stop working. The Fixer wasn't about to assist unless he could be freed. Reed then thought of another solution. London professor Louis Kort was one of the world's best bio-genetic and cybernetics experts. He could be the answer to the solution.
Ben volunteered to make the trip, as long as he could take Masters with him. It would be a good excuse for them to visit England together. Reed volunteered his sling-jet for the journey.
Meanwhile, Prince Namor was about to return to his home environment after recent encounters with the Latverian monarch known as Doctor Doom (in the short-lived Super Villain Team-Up title). He had no sooner submerged when Namor was attacked by his old enemy, Piranha. The Sub-Mariner swiftly defeated his opponent, not knowing that his foe's brother had observed the battle from nearby.
Over the Atlantic, Grimm and Masters were flying toward London in Reed's plane, with Deathlok in their cargo hold. They were looking forward to their vacation together when Ben spied Namor flying alongside their ship. Namor explained that he'd been freed of Doom's control and wished him a friendly greeting.
Moments later, the Sub-Mariner was assaulted by the leaping Piranha. The two combatants then fell back into the waters below. Alicia knew that Ben wanted to help their old ally, and he parked the ship long enough for him to do just that. He had just gone under the water's surface when Alicia was taken by another creature who was confident that the Thing and the Submariner would both meet their demise soon.
Ben was able to shove the Piranha aside before going up for air. The Sub-Mariner was attacked by several more similar-looking opponents, some of which went after the Thing after he tried to return to his friend. Sleep venom overtook the Fantastic Four's strongest member, and he was delivered to a chamber where the one calling himself Piranha soon commanded the two allies to fight one another in a contest to the death.
Alicia sat helplessly by her captor, as the being explained that the previous entity known as the Piranha had since perished and that he and his fellow creatures had evolved into duplicates of the original Piranha. They'd joined forces and found the underwater arena where Ben and Namor were now supposed to fight each other. They were also going to feast on the loser of the bout.
The Thing and the Sub-Mariner made things look convincing enough for a while, until they combined their powers to bring the arena crumbling down. While Ben was tearing the arena apart, Namor took Alicia to safety. Once their foes were presumably crushed by the debris, the trio returned to Reed's floating plane. Ben thanked Namor for his assistance before he and Alicia could resume their journey.
This was Namor's second appearance in this series (the first being in issue #2). He's one of Marvel's oldest characters, and was revived during Marvel's superhero era of the 1960's. He's had several solo ongoing and limited titles, was a founding member of the Defenders, an Avenger, allied with Doctor Doom, and aligned with the X-Men at times. He's one of those heroes who rises to prominence for a while before fading into the background for several years or longer. I didn't know anything about the Piranha before reading this issue, but he seemed like a villain that could be used more often, or paired up with foes like Tiger Shark or other similar denizens of the deep waters.
That's all for this article. I hope you enjoy these posts as much as I enjoy writing them. Next time, I'll tackle the twenty-ninth issue of Marvel Two-In-One. Ben and Alicia finally reach jolly olde England, but a new danger lies in wait. Ben takes on that threat alongside a character that I've written about rather regularly over the course of these retro comic book recaps. Until then, have a great weekend and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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